Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Radnor Lake… Turtles, Owls, and Deer….oh my!

Our first full day in Nashville dawned sunny, with a beautiful blue sky. After a hearty breakfast we set out to walk the circle around Radnor Lake State Natural Area. One of the first distinctive things we saw was a Sassafras Tree, distinctive because it had several different shaped leaves, growing on the same tree at the same time. We didn’t know what it was while we were looking at it but before leaving we stopped in the visitor’s center and they identified it. According to their book the leaves are 4-6” long and 2- or 3-lobed or unlobed. Based on a little knowledge picked up during our trip to the UBC Botanical Garden we called this “vine” growing around and across several trees a liana (a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing if you start thinking you might know what you’re talking about). Time for our first “wildlife” sighting! There were several turtles sunning themselves around the lake. Lacking a great zoom on my camera I was only able to capture this pair (there is another pair in the lower left hand corner of the first picture but they are hard to see). So what do you suppose is going on here? Something (another liana?) has grown around this tree trunk and it looks like it is starting to become one. We saw this is several different places but this was the best shot I could get of it. I’d never seen Mistletoe growing in trees before this! We passed another person on the trail who pointed out this owl; otherwise I doubt we would have noticed him. I thought this was an interesting plant shape (in front of the stump). We actually spotted several deer; this was the best shot I managed to get (yikes...bad word to use! This was the best photo I managed to get!) Evidence of more wildlife spotted on this tree trunk. Bush Honeysuckle, beautiful but on their list of the top four invasive plants around the lake. Lunch that day was my first opportunity to see propagation by air-layering. This Lemon Leaf Tree was growing outside of a Thai Restaurant. As I understand it air layering is the process of using a branch or section of a tree to create another tree. The branch is girdled, then protected with peat moss or other growing media and then the entire girdled section wrapped with a covering (in this case a plastic bag) and allowed to root. After rooting the branch is removed from the tree and planted. I just might have to give this method a try…have any of you ever successfully propagated by air-layering?

11 comments:

Nice post...looks like a fun place for a hike. I'm so jealous you actually got to sea a Sassafrass tree...I've always wanted to see on IRL. Something about the fact that it has leaves with several different shape has always fascinated me. I believe I read somehwere that the leaves are also fragrant.

Greensparrow, NO! Really? That would be too funny b/c when we started off the in-laws specifically warned us about poison ivy. You know I've never encountered it...and I would like to keep it that way!

scott, my ever observant husband was the one...and yes I've heard their leaved are very fragrant. If you happen to be in the market for one Dancing Oaks Nursery had one when I was there last summer.

Ryan, good point! Maybe someday my Manzanita will be big enough.

Darla, it was a beautiful adventure and yes, seems like a child could do it!

I'm ashamed to say that I've taught a few classes on air-layering without ever doing it myself.MY DS tried it once with mixed results on a Japanese Maple. There is a ground layering technique too, where you anchor stems along the ground and them cut them off from the mother plant.Works very well for Pensions and Rosemary, usually by accident.

I have never noticed the fragrance from Sassasfras foliage, but the roots are very aromatic and smell just like root beer. You probably know that this plant was used to make teas for flavor and for medicine. There are many powerful compounds in the roots, but modern research has also determined there are things in there best left undigested.